Humour

The Grand Story of Ikli Chokli

A little chokli, a stray puppy, wanders into a muddy rain puddle one day… From then on, he can’t stop himself from enjoying the icky, sticky, scratchy feeling! What he enjoys even more is telling tall tales about himself! With happy, whimsical illustrations, this small book about a big-talking dog celebrates smart and spunky choklis everywhere.

This Is Me, Mayil

Her diary (or is it her autobiography, she isn’t sure) becomes a rabbit hole and a roadmap to writing her way through life as she sees it. Older and bolder, the unstoppable ‘Mayilwriter’ rants in rhyme, ponders in verse, and doodles in between. 
For every moment of clarity, there are others filled with anger, confusion and self-doubt. But Mayil keeps her chin up and decides that she will never put her pen down.

Mostly Madly Mayil

At 13 going on assertive 14, Mayil is now on her second diary after Mayil Will Not Be Quiet. “Teen queen,” says Ma. “Terrible teens,” says Pa. And yes, Mayil is perceptibly older, and wiser to a lot more things that make up teens. We see her as one of the Fake-inas Friend-ing a “cute” senior on Facebook, as a superpowered Liyam Lonewolf, a Cinderella tripping over her ghagra at Pumpkin VS’s party… and of course, as a further evolved Mayilwriter who wouldn’t mind rapping too, like the cool Kumari Misstake. But some things don’t change. As spirited now as when we saw her last, Mayil continues to pour her many thoughts out in this sequel as honestly, hilariously, thinkingly and touchingly as ever — on everything from sexual harassment, to caste distinctions (even in the Harry Potters!), to Saroja Paati in sleeveless and lipstick. This is another exceptional book from two talented young writers.

“Yes, Mayil writes about serious issues in her diary but she’s also irreverent and fun… Another great thing about the book is that it perfectly reflects the times and the geography it exists in. Mayil, and by extension the book, lives in and exudes Chennai and India. It doesn’t pretend to be anything else – the jokes, the references, the problems manage to be globally relatable while at the same time being inherently local… Pick up this book to add a tremendous dose of fun and irreverence into your reading list with a smattering of insight thrown in.” – Bookworm Etcetera

Mayil Will Not Be Quiet!

Meet Mayil Ganeshan, 12 going on spirited 13, who finally has her chance to say all she wants. But the diary for her is also an important step towards becoming ‘Mayilwriter’, to make up for all the stories she hasn’t completed and the novel that didn’t know where it was going. So she begins. What she gives is a spontaneous, sensitive, honest, intimate and often hilarious peek into the life and mind of an insightful young girl. The Mayil that emerges is as lovable and recognisable as the delightful sketches she presents of her Amma, Appa, brother, grandfather and friends. Mayil has all the confusion and confidence of adolescence as she faces the everyday dilemmas of young people, as well as questions of gender stereotyping all around – from Ramayana stories to Rajnikanth movies. With enough to keep head, heart and funny bone tickled and happy, this is a must-read coming of age book by two highly talented young writers that will strike a chord with all who read it – pre-teen, teen and older.

“Mayil Will Not Be Quiet” is comfortingly real as it delicately brings out the problems and hopes of a pre-teen… At 12, going on 13, she fills her diary with doodles, hopes, rants and problems of a pre-teen, with doses of humour that leave you nostalgic. After all, we’ve all written them in our diaries too… – The Hindu

The acceptance speech by co-author Sowmya Rajendran on receipt of the 2015 Bal Sahitya Puraskar!

Can’t Stop Cody!

“Every time Vismay came home, he expected to find some kind of disaster. He had seen on YouTube how other people recorded their dogs doing nothing but sleep for hours. That wasn’t Cody.”

It all begins when Vismay falls in love with a twice abandoned puppy in a San Francisco animal shelter. He brings him home, except he has no clue about how to raise this adorable, crazy pit bull-pointer he calls Cody. As his life is taken over by a hyperactive ball of energy, there is also lurking danger when Cody’s curiosity leads him to buried treasure!

Get ready for an action packed ride of adventures and misadventures, as Vismay and Cody make a home and the headlines in this story inspired by true events.

Wild Verses Of Wit And Whimsy

In Alok Bhalla’s alphabet symphony, imagination is unfettered and there’s no need to play by the rules, except to get away from the ‘sullen, surly, sombre’ use of language! The 26 letters freely frolic in the wild and wacky vistas of his nonsense verse. Set to whimsical rhythms, they reveal themselves in unexpected ways through the zaniest of characters from A to Z! Manjula Padmanabhan’s witty and refined illustrations evoke the enigma of the letters and their shenanigans. Funny and perceptive at once, this book is an invitation to a joyous, liberating and intelligent exploration of the verbal-visual-musical power of the alphabet.

This odd little book serves as a reminder that growing older needn’t mean growing up… Manjula Padmanabhan’s whimsical drawings complement the text the way baggy pants complement a clown. Whimsy has always been the dominant rasa in Indian cartooning, but here Padmanabhan adds a seditious flavour that suggests the words have all escaped from some asylum. – GoodBooks